For Forever
by clairenbearen
Summary: He always wanted children. One-shot


Elle didn't cook.

Emmett didn't let her; the woman could probably burn _water_.

So Emmett stood over the stove, making spaghetti and meatballs and Elle's favorite homemade sauce.

"How's the case going?" Elle asked, flouncing into the kitchen in one of his old t-shirts and pink boxer shorts. She kissed his cheek and made her way over to sit on a barstool.

"It's classified," he said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and smiled, failing an attempt to stifle a giggle. "No, butthead. I don't want details."

He smiled. "It's difficult."

Elle began nibbling at the garlic bread Emmett had left on the bar. "You think he's guilty?"

Emmett sighed, slowly stirring the pot of spaghetti. "I don't know, Elle. I want to believe he's innocent, I do. But the evidence against him is significant. Something's not right about this. I just don't know what it is."

"Maybe Callahan is in on it," Elle mumbled. Emmett suppressed a smile.

It wasn't until Emmett started plating the meal that Elle spoke again.

"Emmett, do you want kids?"

He froze, a ladleful of spaghetti hovering precariously above his plate. _Kids_. "What?"

Elle began speaking quickly, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. "It's fine, Emmett, I was just wondering, I mean we've been married for three years now and maybe it's time but maybe it's not, it's stupid, really, Emmett, just forget I said anything."

Emmett wanted to stop her rambling, but his mind was too busy focusing on that one word. _Kids_.

 _Of course, I've always wanted children._

Elle quickly loaded her plate and walked to the table. Emmett almost didn't catch her tears.

"Elle, I want children."

It was her turn to freeze, a fork of spaghetti on its way to her mouth. "You're not just saying that?"

Emmett smiled softly, making his way to the table. "I've always wanted kids. It just surprised me, that's all. I thought it would just…" he trailed off, not knowing how exactly to word his thoughts. "I thought it would just, you know…happen."

Elle smiled. "That's why I asked, you know. I thought I was pregnant."

He furrowed his brow. "You thought you were pregnant?"

She nodded, looking up at the ceiling, briefly ignoring her dinner. "I guess I was just hoping. Then I realized that I didn't know your thoughts on having kids." She looked back to him. "Emmett, do you really want children? Really and truly?"

He reached over and put his hand over hers. "I mean it, Elle."

She smiled and jumped out of her chair, wrapping her arms around her husband. "Thank you!" she said, kissing his cheek again.

"So, um," he said once she returned to her seat, "are we going to try to have kids or is it just going to…happen?"

Elle laughed, her green eyes dancing. "Wow," she said with a mouthful of spaghetti. "Three years, and you can't talk about sex without feeling awkward."

Emmett glared at her.

"That's up to you," she said before taking another bite.

 **X-X-X-X-X**

He worked at a small law firm. Most of the time he was stuck behind a desk, sifting through the details of the case he had just recently taken on. He called in "witnesses," waving them away after they repeated the same circumstantial evidence he kept hearing.

As he looked through each page of notes and listened to each testimony, the amount of circumstantial evidence began to balance out with the direct evidence.

His client was guilty.

He hated defending guilty people.

Seven o'clock couldn't come soon enough.

When it finally came time for him to go home, he all but ran out the door, shoving papers into his briefcase.

He opened the door to his and Elle's apartment. Stepping in the doorway, he set down his briefcase by the doorframe. Taking off his coat and hanging it on one of the pegs, he called for his wife. "Elle? Honey, where are you?"

"Here."

He followed her voice to their bedroom, which was surprisingly well decorated with blues and pinks. She was sitting on their bed, and she wasn't wearing any pink.

"What's wrong?" he said, taking off his tie. Elle always wore pink. It was, like, against her own law to _not_ wear pink. He glanced at her braided hair. Not even a pink hair tie. Something was wrong.

"Emmett," she breathed, nervously chewing on her bottom lip.

He finally looked down to see the pregnancy test in her hands.

And he couldn't move. Was she…?

"Are you…?" he couldn't finish the thought, fearing that she would tell him no, it was only a false alarm.

She raised her eyebrows, silently encouraging him to finish his question.

He could feel tears welling up in his eyes. "Are you-are we going to be parents?"

She nodded, tears running down her cheeks. "I'm pregnant."

He made it to the bed in two strides, and he held his wife and child like he would never let go.

 **X-X-X-X-X**

She was lying on their bed, absentmindedly tossing one of Emmett's baseballs in the air. He sat cross-legged on the floor, pouring over one of the books he'd just recently bought.

"Emmett," she whined, draping her right arm over her forehead.

"Yeah, hon?" he said without taking his eyes off his book.

"We need to decide on a name."

Still not looking away from the words on the page, he said, "It's hard to choose a name without knowing the sex of the baby."

Elle rolled to her side so that she could better look at her husband. "That's why you choose two, butthead."

He licked his index finger, nonchalantly turning the page. "You said _a_ name."

She stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed. "Emmett, please."

Emmett sighed, dog-earing the page and finally looking up at his pregnant wife. "What are your ideas?"

Elle huffed and she moved to mirror Emmett's position. She wasn't heavily pregnant, not yet, but there was no denying the fact that she was expecting.

"I don't know yet, Emmett. I think we should keep the 'E' names going though."

Emmett furrowed his brow, confused. "Huh? ' _E_ ' names? What are ' _E_ ' names, Elle?"

She began playing with her ponytail. "You know, names that start with the letter E. Your name is Emmett, my name is Elle, both of them start with an E."

He pressed his lips together, wondering how he was stupid enough to not figure that out. "Wait, first names or first and middle?" At her confused look, he clarified. "I mean, are his or her initials going to be E.E.F. or .F.?"

 _Oh_ , she mouthed and nodded. "Um, wow," she began, scratching her ear. "I mean, your middle name is Jack."

He cringed. He'd never really liked his middle name and had only shared it with Elle. It didn't sit right with him; after all, it made him think of his late father.

She pursed her lips, thinking hard.

"And yours is Rose, right?"

She nodded.

They both sighed in unison, causing Elle to erupt in laughter.

She composed herself, taking in a deep breath. "Let's not give him or her a middle name that starts with an E unless it really works."

"What if," he said slowly, still processing the thought himself, "our baby isn't an Emma or Ethan or Eric or Erin? What if," he glanced up to see his wife following his train of thought, "our baby doesn't fit that?"

She leaned forward. "Then we find a different name."

Emmett only smiled.

 **X-X-X-X-X**

"Elise."

Elle rolled over, trying to open her eyes enough to glare at her husband. "What?" Her voice was thick with exhaustion.

Emmett was staring up at the ceiling, ignoring the time on the clock. "We should name our daughter Elise."

"Emmett," Elle whined, pulling his share of the covers to her side, "I thought we decided to put this off 'til tomorrow."

"It's been bugging me," he said, deciding to brave the cold.

" _Emmett_." Elle's voice was muffled by the combination of her pillow and the covers.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Emmett sighed. They had already decided on Evan Jace for a boy, but they weren't able to come up with a girl name that felt right.

"Wait, when are you due again?"

"Emmett." Elle was unusually grumpy. "Do you want to sleep on the couch?"

Emmett rolled his eyes and rolled to his side.

He wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

 **X-X-X-X-X**

Despite the joy in his life, he still had to go back to work, facing a man who very likely was guilty of rape.

He _hated_ defending rapists.

He made frequent trips to the courtroom, where he was sickened at the thought of this man getting off free. Through each testimony in favor of the defendant, he asked himself: _How would he feel if Callahan was up on the stand, facing charges of sexual assault?_

Answer: he would throw up right then and there in the courtroom.

So finally, when it was time for the jury to make a verdict, he felt he might be able to breathe.

And when he heard the word _guilty_ , he breathed a sigh of relief.

 **X-X-X-X-X**

Elle screamed again, tears pricking at the edges of her eyes. She gripped Emmett's hand even tighter, and though he was pretty sure she would break it, he let her.

After all, the baby had come two weeks early.

With his other hand, he smoothed her blonde hair. He couldn't imagine how painful this was for her; pushing a tiny human through a much smaller hole sounded excruciatingly painful.

She screamed again, and Emmett was trying again (and failing) to comfort her.

Throughout the entire thing, she had not once turned to him and blamed him for the pain she was experiencing.

There was still time, though.

Her breathing was labored, and she no longer had the strength to fight back tears. He rubbed her back soothingly. "You're doing great, sweetie. You're absolutely amazing."

She looked back at him and smiled.

And finally, at 9:07 PM on December 18, their child was born.

A solitary tear fell down Emmett's cheek as the doctor gently wrapped his and Elle's child in a white blanket, placing a hat on its head. As the doctor placed the child in Elle's arms, Emmett looked to him.

The doctor smiled. "You have a beautiful baby girl."

 _A girl_. He had a daughter.

Their little daughter was shrieking, and he couldn't be more in love.

"Well," the doctor smiled, "there's no question about whether or not her lungs are healthy."

Emmett would have smiled back, but he couldn't take his eyes off his beautiful daughter. Like him, she had darker hair. He hadn't seen her eyes yet, but he could only assume that she had blue eyes like him and Elle.

And she was perfect.

"Mr. Forrest," a nurse spoke up softly, and he forced himself to look away from his daughter for a brief moment.

"Yes?"

"Has she got a name yet?"

Emmett looked back to his wife who was now cradling their crying baby. "What is her name, Elle?"

Elle was crying, and Emmett couldn't help thinking that she was more beautiful than he had ever seen her. Her blonde hair stuck to her sweaty face, her face was red, she had bags under her eyes, her hair was a mess, and she was breathtaking.

"Elise. Her name is Elise."

He kissed the top of his wife's head. "She has to have a middle name."

Elle nodded and looked up at him. "What about Noel? It's almost Christmas."

Emmett nodded, and he was pretty sure he was going to be wearing a permanent smile for a long time. He turned to the nurse and took the pen that she offered him and signed his newborn daughter's name on the paper:

 _Elise Noel Forrest_

It had a nice ring to it.

He handed the pen back and turned to sit at his wife's side. Elise had stopped crying as loudly, but her whimpers were still heard. Elle looked up at him. "You want to hold her?"

Emmett couldn't speak, so he nodded instead. He gently took Elise from Elle's arms and cradled her in the crook of his arm. Her cries gradually died down and he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

She was perfect, as if there were any other words to describe her. She was perfect like her mother, stunning like her grandparents, and without fault in her own innocent way.

Emmett leaned down and gently pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you, Elise."

As his best friend placed a simple kiss on his cheek, a single tear dropped from the new father's eye.


End file.
